Every year, as the holiday season approaches, workplaces rehearse the same familiar script: cheerful emails about "well-deserved breaks," reminders to "rest and recharge," and glossy corporate posts celebrating "work-life balance."

Login or signup to continue reading

And yet, beneath the surface of all that festive messaging, many workers feel the opposite - pressure to wrap up projects, guilt about stepping away, and the creeping sense that rest is something to be earned only after every last task is complete.

We talk about holidays as a time of joy, connection, and renewal. But for many people, they've become another arena where productivity culture quietly asserts itself. Even when the calendar says "holiday," the mind whispers, "You should be doing more."

The truth is that taking time for yourself - real time, not the performative kind where you're "off" but still checking email - is one of the most quietly rebellious acts a worker can make today.

It pushes back against a system that has normalised exhaustion, blurred boundaries, and the idea that our worth is measured by output, despite the shaky "right to disconnect" laws that recently came in.

The holidays expose this tension more clearly than any other season.

They remind us that rest is supposed to be cyclical, not conditional. That humans are not machines. That stepping away is not a luxury but a biological and emotional necessity.

And yet, so many people struggle to do it. Me included.

Part of the problem is cultural. We've built workplaces where urgency is the default, where responsiveness is equated with commitment, and where taking........

© Canberra Times